


No Place Like Home

by The_Plaid_Slytherin



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Domestic Fluff, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-12-06
Updated: 2010-12-06
Packaged: 2017-10-17 06:43:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,874
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/174018
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Plaid_Slytherin/pseuds/The_Plaid_Slytherin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Doctor brings Rose and Jack someplace quiet when the TARDIS needs a rest.</p>
            </blockquote>





	No Place Like Home

_**FIC: No Place Like Home (Doctor Who) 1/1**_  
 **Title:** No Place Like Home  
 **Author:** The Plaid Slytherin ([](http://plaid-slytherin.livejournal.com/profile)[ **plaid_slytherin**](http://plaid-slytherin.livejournal.com/) )  
 **Characters/Pairings:** Ten/Jack/Rose  
 **Rating:** Teen  
 **Summary:** The Doctor brings Rose and Jack someplace quiet when the TARDIS needs a rest.  
 **A/N:** Written for [](http://community.livejournal.com/betterwiththree/profile)[**betterwiththree**](http://community.livejournal.com/betterwiththree/) 's H/C Bingo Card Ficathon, to the prompt _brief domesticity_.

  
At least, thought Rose, the TARDIS had enough sense to dump them next to a house.

The thought wasn't that comforting, but it was a start. She crossed her arms over her chest to stave off the cold.

Wherever they'd landed didn't remind Rose of anyplace in particular that she'd ever been before. The sky was a pale lime green, which, based on the wind and what looked like clouds, Rose guessed was this planet's equivalent of gray. It cast the world in an eerie color and, coupled with the electric blue grass, it made her feel uneasy.

She stuck her hands in the pockets of her jacket. "Where are we, then?" she asked, turning to look at the Doctor, who was helping Jack carry a few supplies from the TARDIS.

"This is Vas-ah-Feen," the Doctor said, with his usual pep, fumbling in his jacket pocket for the sonic screwdriver. "I've programmed the TARDIS to bring us here if she ever needs a… rest."

Rose frowned, but she came over to help them anyway. "What kind of a rest?"

It seemed like it was weeks ago, though it had hardly been an hour. They had just left Bryasia and something had gone wrong. At first Rose had been afraid it had to do with the Slitheen or something, but the Doctor had easily diagnosed as what he called Vortex junk.

"Like space junk," Jack provided helpfully.

"Exactly," agreed the Doctor. "Vortex junk floating around the, er, Vortex until… Bang!" He clapped his hands together. "TARDIS runs into a big piece of something and down we go."

"Will she be all right?" Rose asked. She hoped they wouldn't be stranded here on this strange and seemingly-empty planet.

"Absolutely!" said the Doctor, setting another box down next to the small pile they had been accumulating. "Rose, can you help us bring a few of these things into the house?"

Rose turned to look at the house. _Cabin_ seemed a more apt descriptor, to be truthful. It was low-slung, only one story tall and made of logs, looking like something out of an American western film.

Maybe it was like the TARDIS, she decided. Maybe it was bigger on the inside. She picked up the bag she'd hastily packed and slung it over her shoulder.

It took a bit of effort to open the door, and as Rose's eyes adjusted to the dark, she saw that she had, in fact, been wrong. It wasn't bigger on the inside.

The Doctor came up behind her. "Everything okay?" he asked, pushing past her and flicking on the lights. They flickered for a second and then went on; Rose breathed a sigh of relief. At least this place had electricity. It didn't look it from the outside. She supposed that was the Doctor at work.

Jack came in behind them with the last of the things and closed the door. "She's already kicked me out," he told them. "I told her to have nice recycling cycle."

"Good!" The Doctor sounded pleased. "The sooner it starts, the sooner it'll be finished." He set down the boxes he was carrying and took a look around the room. Rose looked, too.

The front door opened onto a small entryway with a threadbare rug that the Doctor kicked flat with the toe of his trainer. "The kitchen's through here," he said, gesturing to his left. "There's a sitting room, bedroom… Bathroom's in the back." He began pacing through the house, picking up various items and opening closets and cabinets at random. "Blimey, these things have been here ages!" He reached into a closet at the end of the hall and removed a long, multicolored scarf. "I'd wondered where I left this!"

"Nice place you got here," said Jack, coming in from the kitchen. "We'll be okay here for a few days."

"Exactly," said the Doctor. "That's why it's here."

Tentatively, Rose took a step into the sitting room. There was a couch and two armchairs on either side of a rather dusty bookshelf. The curtains on the windows were drab and Rose pushed them aside to get another look at the outside world.

"What is this place?" she asked, looking at the swirling forest-green clouds outside. She wondered if this meant there was a storm coming, and she tried to picture the scene like a normal, Earth one. Green grass blowing as the wind picked up. Gray sky, black clouds. There was a low rumble and Rose was comforted that at least thunder was the same.

"Like I said, it's called Vas-ah-Feen," the Doctor told her. "Safest place for a safehouse I could think of. Uninhabited southern continent, non-sentient lifeforms on the northern continent. Planet's recovering from a major ecological disaster, but there's nothing dangerous about it now." He joined her at the window and looked out. "This is the rainy season, I'd imagine, but it shouldn't be anything too severe." He stepped back again and rubbed his hands together. "We should only be here for a couple of days anyway. Let's get ourselves set up."

For the next several minutes, the three of them busied themselves with various tasks. Rose went into the bedroom and was pleased to find that the bed was bigger than she'd expected. _Definitely enough for all three of us_ , she thought.

As she put her clothes in the dresser, she wondered if the Doctor had ever brought any of his other companions here. Had anyone else used this bedroom? The Doctor slept so rarely, she wondered why he even had one in the house at all, if he primarily stayed here when he was alone.

"Rose! Rose! Where are you?" The Doctor's shouts cut off as soon as he entered the room and spotted her. "Oh! There you are! Jack's in the kitchen, making tea. Would you care to join us?" He offered her his arm with a flourish and his overdramatic manner made Rose smile.

"Of course."

The Doctor beamed. "Brilliant! This'll be like roughing it," he said, as he led her to the kitchen. "Almost like camping! Time Lords never go camping, but you, humans, that's one of the things I like the most about you. Tents and campfire songs and s'mores, oh, I love s'mores. Have you ever had s'mores, Rose?"

Rose hadn't, and the Doctor's face lit up when she told him so. "Oh, then we'll have to make some, then! I'll poke about in our supplies and see what we've got."

They turned out to be lacking the supplies for s'mores, so they had had to make do with a few packets of licorice. The storm continued to rage outside as they finished their meal, and the electricity cut out while they were cleaning up.

"I guess that's a sign," said Jack, putting his dishrag down. Rose could just barely make him out in the dark. The sky outside was so cloudy, no light was making its way through.

"Are you saying we should go to bed?" she asked.

Jack was silent.

Then, she heard the Doctor say, "Now, Jack, you're just lucky Time Lords have excellent night vision. …Jack? Oh. Well, then. Allons-y!"

**

Rose woke the next morning to purple-tinged sunlight streaming across the bed. She blinked sleepily and stretched her arms above her head, yawning. Beside her, Jack was still asleep, but, on his other side, the Doctor was gone.

As if on cue, the bedroom door opened and the Doctor came in, carrying a large tray.

"Good morning!" he exclaimed. "How did we all sleep?"

"Great," said Rose. She had underestimated this place. It was a lot more comfortable than she had expected. "I like it here."

After the storm of the day before, the sun was very welcome and the electricity had come back, too. The Doctor opened the curtains wide and the three of them had breakfast in bed together.

"Did you check on her?" Jack asked, between bites of egg.

The Doctor bobbed his head in a nod. "She's doing well. Probably be up and running in a few days."

"How long's a few days?" Rose asked.

The Doctor rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "Oh, that's a highly-scientific question, Rose! How much is a few? Less than a handful? More than a tidbit? Definitely less than a while."

Rose shook her head and reached for another piece of toast. "So, we'll do domestic, then."

The Doctor snorted. "Domestic. I don't do domestic."

"I thought that was the before you," Rose teased, pressing a kiss to the Doctor's temple and letting her fingers curl in his soft hair. "I haven't heard you say that yet in this body."

"Well, I would have," said the Doctor, licking marmalade off his wrist, "if I'd had to spend any more time with your mother."

She gave him a playful shove and he pulled her, laughing, into an embrace, which Jack joined after he deftly moved the dishes to the floor. A break seemed really nice, Rose thought, as the Doctor and Jack settled on either side of her. She could get used to spending the day in bed.

As it was, that was very nearly exactly what happened. Rose dozed off around noon, waking to find the Doctor gone.

 _He must have gone out to check the TARDIS_ , she thought, pushing herself out of bed and reaching for her clothes. She glanced at Jack, still on the bed, asleep, and decided to leave him. He looked so comfortable, and much more relaxed than she had ever seen him. He could use the rest, she told herself.

Rose went out to where they'd left the TARDIS, just a short walk from the front door. It was a warm day, feeling like the middle of spring, and Rose could hear what sounded like birdsong in the trees behind the house, though she would have been surprised if the singing was being done by actual birds.

"How is she?" she asked, coming up behind the Doctor, who was kneeling in front of the TARDIS's doors, his hand resting on the wood.

The Doctor paused, and for a second, Rose thought he hadn't heard her. She was about to repeat herself, when the Doctor stood, jamming his hands in his suit pockets. "She's coming along swimmingly! Really going well."

"So, what exactly is going on in there?" Rose didn't usually understand the TARDIS's functions, but she was always willing to make the effort.

"Oh, she's just resting, like I said." He turned to Rose. "Haven't you ever been so tired you just needed a break from things?"

She was surprised at first by the Doctor's candor, and she suspected he wasn't talking about the TARDIS—at least, not _just_ the TARDIS.

"Sure," she said. "I know what you mean. It used to happen to me when I was in school. I'd have loads of exams and tests and papers due all at once. The teachers would just assign them all at once, like they expected you to have the time do them all. It used to make me freeze up, and then I'd just not get any of them done."

The Doctor nodded. "Do you mind? If the TARDIS takes a bit of a rest? I'd really rather not push her; she can be temperamental." He grinned.

Rose grinned back. "Sure, I don't mind. I'm sure Jack doesn't either."

He slipped an arm around her shoulders and pulled her close. "Thanks, Rose," he said, kissing her. "I'm sure the TARDIS appreciates it."

"And what does the TARDIS appreciate, exactly?" Jack asked, coming up to them.

"She appreciates that Rose is being so kind and generous as to allow us to stay here while she rests up." The Doctor leaned in to kiss Jack. "Are you all right with that?"

"Of course," said Jack. "I'm always up for something new, and domestic's new for us, isn't it?"

"It certainly is," said the Doctor. "So, what do you do… domestically? Do we set up a chore chart? See who cooks what when?"

"I'm sure we'll get on fine without that," said Rose. "How about if I cook… er…" She paused. "What meal is it?" She glanced at the sun, but could get no indication of what time it was.

"Say it's tea," the Doctor advised her. "You can always say it's tea."

**

Rose wasn't much of a cook; she didn't know as many recipes by heart as her mother did, though she could hold her own if given the proper tools. She found the proper tools to be a box of uncooked spaghetti and a jar of sauce in the pantry.

She found herself wishing she had more to add to it, like some spices or something—Jackie would have added spices—but she regarded it as an accomplishment when the Doctor and Jack were drawn to the kitchen by the smell.

"Oh, Italian!" exclaimed Jack. "I love Italian! Did I ever tell you I knew Alfredo?"

"Alfredo who?" Rose asked, portioning pasta out onto plates.

"Fettuccine Alfredo Alfredo, that's who," said Jack, sounding somewhat indignant.

Rose snorted. "Now _that_ you have to be making up."

Jack flashed her a _wouldn't-you-like-to-know_ grin.

"This is _delicious_ , Rose!" the Doctor exclaimed, taking a bite of spaghetti. "Where did you learn to do this?"

"It wasn't so hard," she said, breezily. "Doesn't even really count as cooking."

"Ah, but it's nice knowing you can feed us, even if it's not cooking," said Jack.

Rose hit him on the arm with her napkin. "All right, your turn tomorrow night."

Jack laughed. "I accept your challenge, Miss Tyler."

"And what about you?" Rose asked the Doctor. "When are you going to cook?"

"Oh," said the Doctor, dismissively. "You don't want that." He twirled his fork in his spaghetti, expertly gathering noodles.

"C'mon, Doc," said Jack. "What'd you do before us?"

"Oh, places." The Doctor reached for his glass of water. "Places have food."

"Eating out's great," said Rose, "but there's nothing like a home-cooked meal. Like Mum used to make and all that."

"I suppose," said the Doctor. "If you had a mum. Who made meals. If you had a _planet_ that made meals."

"Oh, come on," said Rose. "First you say Time Lords don't sleep, now you're telling me you don't eat?"

"Oh, we eat," said the Doctor, proving this point by shoving another forkful of pasta into his mouth. "Just not… meals… a lot of the time." He shrugged. "You know. Pills and things."

Rose shook her head. He had to be making it up. She was about to say something to that effect, when she noticed a faraway look in the Doctor's eyes. She opened her mouth to ask if he was all right, when his face split into a grin.

"You know what we should do? Play a board game. I'll clean up here; Jack, why don't you and Rose go pick out a game?"

Rose sighed inwardly. She knew something was bothering him, but he'd never open up about it. At least, not to her, or as far as she knew, Jack. Had he done so with his other companions? Rose didn't want to think about that. She knew he'd had others but there was a part of her that liked to think she and Jack were somehow… special, somehow unique.

"Rose?" said Jack. "You coming?"

"Oh, sure." She stood and followed Jack into the sitting room, who knelt in front of the bookshelf and began rummaging through the stacked game boxes there.

"So…" said Jack. "What should we play? Mangoland? Don't Wake the Quorilax? Barrel Full of Frogs?"

"Um." Rose paused. "Isn't there… Monopoly, or something?"

"There's New New York Monopoly," said Jack.

"Sure," said Rose. "That sounds good."

The Doctor joined them and they began to play. It didn't take Rose long to realize the differences (instead of the thimble, she selected a piece that vaguely resembled a microscope) and adapt to them. The rules were basically the same; the properties were just different.

She was unsurprised to see that the Doctor quickly took the lead. When she pointed this out, he scratched the back of his neck. "Purely luck," he maintained. "This whole game is just based on luck."

Rose said nothing, wincing as she rolled doubles for the third time and moved her microscope to jail ("the detention facility").

Forty-five minutes later, she went bankrupt, having landed on the Doctor's hotel on Whittaker Palisades (or, as Rose translated it to herself, Mayfair). Watching the Doctor and Jack play was just as interesting, however, especially since Jack attempted to offer sexual favors in lieu of mortgaging his property.

The Doctor won in the end, as Rose suspected he would, though no one made any moves to put the game away.

"That was nice," the Doctor finally remarked. "I quite enjoyed that. Been… quite a while since I played with any of these."

"But you brought other people here, right?" Rose asked. "People you were traveling with?"

The Doctor paused. He shifted position from lying on his side and drew his legs up. "Actually, no. I've never brought anyone else here."

"Oh," said Rose. "I guess I just thought… if you had this place, you might've brought someone else here."

"No," the Doctor repeated. "It's been just me. I always kept the place stocked in case I _did_ wind up bring someone else—a human—here, but I never did, not until now."

Rose was about to say something else, when the Doctor went on. Not wanting to interrupt him, she just listened.

"I chose this place because it reminds me of home. Gallifrey, I mean. Just a little bit. You might not notice it, if you'd been to Gallifrey, but to me, the atmosphere feels the same. I've come here sometimes when I'm by myself and I need to… unwind. Like after the war." He paused again, and Jack pushed the game board aside to slide closer to the Doctor.

"After the Time War, I came here. For a while. I woke up after I did it, after I sealed everyone away." He looked down at his knees. "I woke up—I'd regenerated—that was the body you met me in—but I hardly noticed or cared. Didn't even look at myself in the mirror. I just needed to get away. The TARDIS brought me here. I hadn't used the place in years. But this was the first place she thought of for me, while I was lying there, dying on the floor."

Rose closed her eyes. "Doctor, I'm…"

"She brought me here and kicked me out." He gave a short, mirthless chuckle. "She kicked me out and she wouldn't let me leave again until she was satisfied that I…" He scratched the back of his neck. "Until she was satisfied that I was going to be okay."

Rose moved forward and slid her arm around the Doctor's shoulders. On his other side, Jack did the same.

The Doctor gave a hint of a smile. "I met you right after that. So I guess it did turn out all right."

Rose smiled, though she felt like crying when she thought of the Doctor, her _first_ Doctor, and the state he must have been in at the end of the Time War. "Going to have to thank that TARDIS, won't we, Jack?" she said.

"Yeah," said Jack, tightening his grip on the Doctor. "We will."

He titled the Doctor's chin up and kissed him, and Rose watched them. She could tell Jack was putting everything he had into that kiss and it reassured her that they were both united in trying to help the Doctor.

When Jack had let him go, Rose moved in for her kiss. The Doctor responded to her with just as much vigor as he'd responded to Jack, and Rose took her time, trying to show him what he meant to her.

Even when they parted, Rose didn't move from her position, half in the Doctor's lap, her arms around his neck. "Well," he said. "I'm glad I found the two of you."

"So are we," said Jack, sliding his arm around the Doctor's shoulders and pressing his lips to Rose's temple.

"Yeah," she said. "Don't even want to think about where you'd be now if you hadn't."

"Oh, I'd be fine," the Doctor murmured into her shoulder. "TARDIS'd take care of me."

Rose didn't doubt this, but, as much as she trusted the TARDIS, she was glad she could look after the Doctor herself—and with Jack. "I'm sure," she said.

The three of them sat like that for a long time, just savoring each other's company. Rose was waiting for the Doctor to be the one to make the first move, and he finally did, giving Rose the indication that he wanted to stand up.

"Thanks," he said. "For coming with me—" They both started to speak here, but he waved them silent. "For coming with me _here_. I wasn't sure I could bring anyone else here—always wanted to, and it seems to have worked out okay."

"Anything, Doc," said Jack. "We'll do anything; you know that."

The Doctor just smiled faintly and didn't say anything. "Now," he said, rubbing his hands together. "I expect we'll be here for a day or two more. What other mischief can we get up to?"

"I found a bucket of Angelslydian Pick-Up Sticks," Jack said, turning back to the shelf.

"Angel… what?" said Rose, befuddled.

"Angelslydian Pick-Up Sticks," the Doctor repeated, as though speaking slower would make her understand.

"They snap at you," Jack offered, twisting the top off the canister and dumping the sticks out on the ground.

Rose eyed them warily. They looked like ordinary pick-up sticks to her.

"All right, I'll go first," declared the Doctor, undoing his tie and shucking off his suit jacket. "C'mon! Do your worst!"

Rose laughed. It was good to spend time with the Doctor and Jack like this, to take a bit of a break. The Doctor had seemed to need it, and she found herself glancing out the window at the TARDIS. Had she… done this on purpose?

"Rose!" the Doctor exclaimed. "You turn! I've been nicked!"

"Okay." She turned away from the window to take her place between the Doctor and Jack.

It was nice for a few days, at least. She knew the TARDIS would heal, probably around the same time the Doctor got the itch to go traveling again. It was an itch that he could never get rid of, would never _want_ to get rid of, and Rose thought Jack had it, too. Heck, she might be coming down with it herself. Regardless, she'd follow them; she was as sure of that as she was sure of anything. For as long as she possibly could, wherever the TARDIS would take them.  



End file.
